"This is how much I know about Arizona, but I'll still tell you what you want: unfettered corporatism."
The
Arizona Republic reported on a story published Thursday in The Nation, which got its hands on audio from a secret June 2014 summit in California, where GOP candidates sucked up to the Koch brothers and other Richie Riches. From
The Nation:
Secret tapes of a June summit of wealthy donors organized by the Kochs reveal that top Republican gubernatorial prospects—including Nebraska’s Pete Ricketts and Arizona’s Doug Ducey—appeared before the group, as did Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and a cavalcade of Senate candidates that included Iowan Joni Ernst, Arkansas Congressman Tom Cotton and Colorado Congressman Cory Gardner. All were solicitous. But few were so blunt as Ducey, a wealthy former business executive who thanked the Kochs directly while declaring, “I have been coming to this conference for years. It’s been very inspirational.”
Doug Ducey, the former CEO of Coldstone Creamery, is locked in a dead-heat in the Arizona governor's race with Democrat Fred DuVal who, like Janet Napolitano, could veto a lot of the Looney Tune shit that spews out of the legislature — abortion restrictions, union attacks, immigrant bashing, school cuts, corporate blow jobs, land chomping, 24/7 tea bagging dominionist anti-federalism. Ducey would be their cheerleader.
The Arizona Republic article notes that Ducey has benefitted handsomely from Koch cash, funneled through nonprofits like 60 Plus and coordinated by Sean Noble, a well-known local political operative and "veteran of the Koch network," according to The Republic. Ducey has received millions more from other out-of-state groups, including the Republican Governors Association, another Koch beneficiary, which has pumped more than $2 million into his race.
Please read below the fold for more on this story.
At the June summit of greedheads in Dana Point, California, Ducey couldn't have been more solicitous if he tried. And believe me, he tries very hard, with other dark-money groups like American Encore, The Center to Protect Patient Rights and the Arizona Free Enterprise Club — cheery-sounding made-in-America ditties that've spent gobs attacking DuVal. At Dana Point Ducey puckered up and kissed the ol' boys' oily backsides:
"I want to say thank you to Charles and David as well... I have been coming to this conference for years. It's been very inspirational. Uh, Charles, I asked what I would do if I wasn't afraid, and I said, 'I'd run for governor.' "
He continued, touting his campaign's endorsement from Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who is supported by the Koch brothers, saying, "In this business, you're known by the company you keep, and uh, we're proud that we're off to a fast start. Uh, we're proud that Governor Scott Walker has endorsed our campaign."
Isn't that special, an endorsement from Walker—"the company you keep" indeed. The DuVal campaign has called on Ducey to publicly acknowledge the dark money he's received: "Doug Ducey works for out-of-state billionaires, not for Arizona,"
said Rodd McLeod, a consultant for DuVal. Natch, Ducey refuses to answer DuVal's challenge, nor will he even say if and why he attended the June summit, who invited him or how much he walked away with.
Since The Nation story broke, some reporters have also wondered about Ducey's Koch connection, and tonight Channel 12's Brahm Resnick put the question to him at a fundraiser starring New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Watch as Ducey starts to answer but is interrupted by Christie, a master of the non-answer, who deflects Resnick's question, drops an innuendo about Fred DuVal that he doesn't substantiate, and essentially says Koch money isn't all that dark and the brothers have every right to buy and lie. (The video is at this link but I'm not embedding it because it auto-plays.)
In the video Gov. Christie says people who are concerned about Koch cash buying elections "have a much, much different agenda than the people of Arizona have." Well, Governor, we are the people of Arizona, and the right to vote, to drink unpolluted water and breathe clean air, to earn a livable wage, to enjoy health care and good schools, to bargain as workers, to extend equal rights to women, people of color and the LGBT community, all of which the Kochs oppose, are on our agenda — unlike yours, which is to further prop up the corporate toadies who've controlled this state far too long. And Doug Ducey is their lapdog. Go home.